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St. Thérèse of Lisieux comes to life on stage in the parish hall of Our Lady of Good Counsel Church on East 90th Street in Manhattan. Her story of faith unfolds in an hour-long production that takes place within the confines of her Carmelite convent in France, where she lived as a religious sister for the last nine years of her short life.
As portrayed by actress Fanny Veliz, St. Thérèse greets audiences as if they are visitors to the Carmel where she lived in the late 19th century, and fills their time together with a close-up portrait of convent life spliced with her prescription for faith-filled devotion to God.
Her words, delivered in first-person voice by Ms. Veliz, are resonant as ever in today’s modern world, perhaps even more than when she first uttered them.
“Every day you tell yourself:
‘I don’t have enough time,
I have too many things to do.’
But let me tell you,
Each day spend some time with God,
and you’ll have time to do everything.
When one gives time to God,
Eternity is revealed
in every moment.”
Many of the topics explored are familiar to devotees of St. Thérèse’s “Little Way” of holiness as best expressed in her spiritual classic, “The Story of a Soul,” published shortly after her death from tuberculosis at age 24. Her life unfolds on stage, whether the focus be as close as the sister whose wheelchair she is to push to the convent chapel for 11 a.m. Mass that day, or as far away as her near death from illness as a child.
The pacing is brisk, so fast it’s easy to miss the meaning of lines that move quickly past, but before your mind turns to regret, St. Thérèse draws you in again, inviting you as she would a postulant to consider a life with God that she holds close. It comes across as a personal invitation to each audience member.
“I love everything about my life in the Carmel,” she says. “It is a life made of nothing. A modest life. A hidden life is the best kind of life, showing off is a pity. Being in God is being free.”
The 50 New York performances of “St. Thérèse” this summer, the vast majority at Our Lady of Good Counsel, are being brought here as part of an extended world tour by the show’s writer, director and producer Michel Pascal, 53. He is a native of France who now splits his time between New York City and Los Angeles. His captivating voice, evident in several intricate chants and in a duet with Ms. Veliz, is one of the show’s highlights.
The production has been performed some 700 times in five years for audiences in Europe, Asia, Canada, Israel and the United Arab Emirates, among other places.
Pascal’s first personal encounter with the saint dates to a visit he made to Lisieux with his parents when he was just 6 years old. He still recalls the trip clearly nearly half a century later, as he did in relating the story during our recent interview at the New York Catholic Center.
“I felt something unbelievable. It’s the same thing as if I met my best friend,” said Pascal, who noted with a smile that he was Catholic even before he was born because his last name means Easter in French.
St. Thérèse, of course, needs no introduction to the many Catholics familiar with her life of holiness that was recognized universally when Pope Pius XI canonized her in 1925, and then again when Pope John Paul II named her a Doctor of the Church in 1997.
Shortly after her canonization, she was named co-patron of the missions along with the co-founder of the Jesuits, St. Francis Xavier. She received that special standing despite never having served in a foreign land.
Her “Little Way” gives St. Thérèse a universality that appeals to audiences all around the world, Catholics and non-Catholics alike, Pascal explained.
“The message of Thérèse is simple. Love is simple…We are too much complicated,” he said.
He has high hopes of continuing his promotion of Thérèse while pursuing his dream of becoming what he calls an “artist missionary.”
The audience for “St. Thérèse” was very small the night of the performance that I saw last week. The show has a lot to recommend it, beginning with a beautiful set of vintage photos of the saint and the one of the Carmel in Lisieux projected at the show’s outset. It is well worth an hour of your time. A schedule of performances can be found along with this column at cny.org.
